Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos says the Nancy Guthrie case is far from cold. As the search for the mother of TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie continues after nearly three weeks, the sheriff shared details about surveillance video, DNA testing and the suspect’s gun holster.
Nanos spoke with NBC News correspondent Liz Kreutz on TODAY Feb. 18 about the latest in the search for Guthrie, whom police believe was abducted from her home in Arizona on Feb. 1.
Here’s what to know.
Sheriff: DNA found at scene could belong to kidnapping suspect
Nanos says DNA found at the scene of Nancy Guthrie’s home could potentially belong to the suspect, who was seen wearing a balaclava, gloves and a holstered weapon in front of Guthrie’s home, in footage captured by surveillance video.
“We believe that we may have some DNA there that may be our suspect, but we won’t know that until that DNA is separated, sorted out, maybe admitted to CODIS, maybe through genetic genealogy,” Nanos said. “Now we start with genealogy and some of the partial DNA we have at the home. To me, that’s more critical than any glove I found two miles away.”
DNA analysis of a glove found two miles from Guthrie’s home in Tucson did not yield any hits in the FBI’s database, and there was no match with what was found at the property, according to Nanos.
Police are digging deeper into surveillance footage, gun holster
In the surveillance video taken in front of Nancy Guthrie’s front door, the masked suspect can be seen wearing a unique-looking gun holster in an unusual position between his legs.
Nanos told Kreutz that authorities have been showing a picture of the holster to local gun shop owners to see if anyone recognizes the suspect or remembers selling the holster. NBC News also spoke to one local gun shop owner who said the FBI visited him with a list of about two dozen pictures.
Kreutz also noted that a ring appears to be showing through one of the suspect’s gloves in the surveillance footage released by investigators.
“I look at the same photo you look at and I get. I see it. I see,” Nanos said. “People have circled and said (it’s a ring). My speculation is, I’m going to give that to my team. They’ll look at that. They’ll analyze it, and we’ll see.”
Nanos also believes the suspect had a target in mind.
“I think this was an individual who had a target for whatever reason, and he has made it tough. But I’ve got some pretty tough investigators, too,” he said.
Companies offering help to retrieve more footage
Since authorities released the doorbell camera video of the suspect on Feb. 10, Google is still working on retrieving more footage from other Nest cameras on Guthrie’s property, according to Nanos.
He added that additional companies, including Meta and Apple, have offered to help.
“The way it was described to me is you’ve got eight layers of paint, and you want to peel down to the sixth layer, but you get to that fifth layer, you might tear the sixth layer,” Nanos said. “So there it’s a delicate operation for them.”
The update on the case from Nanos comes after he released a statement on Feb. 16 that cleared the Guthrie family as possible suspects in the case, while advising online sleuths to not speculate who could be involved in the kidnapping.
“This is a family who’s lost their mom to a monster,” he told Kreutz. “We’re going to find her, and we’re going to find that monster. But come on, we can do better.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
- Yellow Flowers Fill TODAY Studio to Send Love to Guthrie Family
- Nancy Guthrie Case: Police Focus on DNA Found at Her Property
- Archbishop of New York Leads a Hopeful Prayer on TODAY for Nancy Guthrie’s Return
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